Counter-acting lexicons for the Terms of Service

This project is now archived and was part of DDW24

This project is part of
The Symbiocene Forest - Coexistence

Zine mock-up exploring different vocabularies

Seda Özçetin

Counter-acting lexicons for the Terms of Service is an exploration into the power of words in shaping our worlds. At the garden of BioArt Labs, lexicons that attempt to change the conversation for imagining eco-social contracts will be exhibited.

Words that control us!

Terms of Service is a key figure in the technologically textured everyday. It is used to legitimize the data practices of technology companies. To do so, it taps into the power of the words. By gathering words in a specific flow and structure for a specific purpose, it creates a specific type of narrative. It defines who is who, who can do what, who can’t do what and sets the rules of the game serving to the benefit of the technology companies. Through these tactics, it makes a specific type of world for us to live in and controls our sense of being online and offline.

Words that give us control!

How can we imagine alternatives for the Terms of Service? Could it be through counter-acting words? Exploring eco-social contracts, this exhibition proposes new vocabularies that think with humans and nonhumans rather that only with corporations. How about ‘E’ for ‘ecology’, ‘C’ for ‘care’, ‘N’ for nonhuman? This exhibition is a conversation starter for changing the conversation.

Proudly funded by

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 955990.